Americans miss podium in skeleton World Cup openers, with snow wiping out half of women’s race

Americans fall short in World Cup skeleton openers

PARK CITY, Utah — Zach Lund had a bad leg. Eric Bernotas had a bad run. Noelle Pikus-Pace had some bad luck.

For some of America’s Olympic skeleton hopefuls, there was no margin for error in Thursday’s World Cup season openers.

Latvia’s Martins Dukurs won the men’s World Cup start to this Olympic season, finishing in 1 minute, 39.75 seconds on the 2002 Salt Lake City Games track. He was 0.52 seconds — an eternity in skeleton — better than Germany’s Sandro Stielicke, and 0.62 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Kristan Bromley in third.

In the women’s race, which was cut to one run because of a heavy snow squall, Germany’s Anja Huber prevailed by 0.14 seconds over Canada’s Amy Gough. Another Canadian, Mellisa Hollingsworth, was third, another 0.01 seconds back, and Katie Uhlaender’s seventh-place showing topped a trio of American women.

“At this time, I’m very happy,” Dukurs said. “I was fast. Olympic year, I feel the pressure, but I think I’m ready.”

He and Huber sure seem ready.

The Americans aren’t quite there yet.

Lund, the Salt Lake City native who had plenty of well-wishers here to see him, hasn’t been able to train for weeks because of a strained hamstring, and said he was happy finishing fifth, 0.82 seconds behind Dukurs. Bernotas tied for sixth with a disappointing second run; he was third after the first trip down, but had only the 11th-fastest time out of 20 racers in the second run.

“My hamstring held up well today, actually, which is a good sign. I needed that,” Lund said. “Mentally, it’s been hard. I’ve been very cautious, just trying to do everything I can to get ready for the World Cup season.”

World Cup rookie John Daly was 14th in the men’s race, after two blazing-fast start times of 4.65 and 4.67 seconds, respectively. Comparatively, Dukurs’ starts were 4.67 and 4.64.

“I was way nervous on the first run and calmed down a little bit for the second run,” Daly said. “I’m happy with today’s pushes and today’s results.”

Not everyone in the U.S. team room could say the same.

Pikus-Pace, a former world champion racing on her home track, was a stunningly low 13th on her first run. Rebecca Sorensen, the other U.S. woman in the field, was 18th.

Light snow started falling just as the women’s second run was beginning. By the time Pikus-Pace took her turn, about 10 minutes after competition resumed, it was practically a whiteout at the top of the track, with an elevation over 7,000 feet.

The race jury chose to cancel relatively quickly. Within 20 minutes of the race being wiped out, the snow stopped.

“It was a winter wonderland, but it was really snowy,” Pikus-Pace said. “I was trying to dodge snowballs on the way down. It was pretty snowy, coming down pretty hard.”

Canada took three of the top five spots in the women’s race. Great Britain’s Shelley Rudman was fourth, and Michelle Kelly — back on her national team after a successful appeal of her ban for allegedly doctoring her runners at the Canadian trials — was fifth.

Uhlaender wasn’t far from that mix. Her push time of 5.19 seconds was only 14th-best in the field, which was no surprise considering she’s still working her way back from a shattered kneecap. Take away the slow start, and her split times down the rest of the course were comparable to just about anyone.

Pikus-Pace might have had a valid reason for her struggles as well. Earlier this week, she was in an emergency room, checked for what doctors believe was a gallstone attack.

“I plan to move up,” Pikus-Pace said. “There’s only one direction to go from here for the rest of the season.”

Racing resumes with the World Cup women’s and two-man bobsled opener Friday, followed by the four-man bobsled Saturday night before the series shifts to Lake Placid, N.Y. next weekend.